I invite you to turn now on your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 19 for you who are here using these Bibles as page 229 and I'll give you a little bit here to find that. So we'll start with 2 Samuel 9 and verse 9. This is God's Word, eternally true. 2 Samuel chapter 19 verse 9. Did I say 19 before? I hope I did. Okay, chapter 19 verse 9. God's Word, eternally true. Throughout the tribes of Israel, the people were all arguing with each other, saying the king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. He is the one who rescued us from the hand of the Philistines. But now, he has fled the country because of Absalom, an Absalom who we anointed to rule over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about bringing the king back? King David sent this message to Zeta, going to buy a fire of the priests, asked the elders of Judah, why should you be the last to bring the king back to his palace since what is being said throughout Israel has reached the king at his quarters. You are my brothers, my own flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to bring back the king? And say to Amasa, are you not my own flesh and blood? May God deal with me, be it ever so severely from now on, you are not the commander of my army in place of Joa. He won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man. They sent words to the king, return you and all your men. Then the king returned and went as far as the Jordan. Now the men of Judah had come to Gilgal to go out and meet the king and bring him across the Jordan. Shemai, son of Gura of Benjamin from the Horm, hurried down with men of Judah to meet King David. With them were a thousand Benjaminites along with Ziva, the steward of Saul's household, and his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed to the Jordan where the king was. They crossed at the fort to take the king's household over, and to do whatever he wished. When Shemai, son of Gura, crossed the Jordan, he fell prostrate before the king and said to him, may my Lord not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my Lord, the king left Jerusalem. May the king put it out of his mind for I, your servant, know that I have sinned. But today I have come here as the first of the whole house of Joseph to come down and meet my Lord, the king. Then Abishai, son of Zaria, said, shouldn't Shemai be put to death for this? He cursed the Lord's anointed. David replied, what do you and I have in common, these sons of Zaria? This day you have become my adversaries. Should anyone be put to death in Israel today? Do I not know that today I am king over Israel? So the king said to Shemai, you shall not die. And the king promised him anointed. The fidisheth, Saul's grandson, also went down to meet the king. He had not taken care of his feet or trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he returned safely. When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, why didn't you go with me, the fidisheth? He said, my Lord, the king, since I, your servant, am lame, I said, I will have my donkey settled and will ride on it so that I can go with the king. But Zeba, my servant, betrayed me. And he has slandered your servant to my Lord, the king. My Lord, the king is like an angel of God, so do whatever pleases you. All my grandfather's descendants deserve nothing but death from my Lord, the king. But you gave your servant a place among those who sat at your table. So what right do I have to make any more appeals to the king? The king said to him, why say more? I order you, and Zeba, to divide the fields. The fidisheth said to the king, let him take everything. Now that my Lord, the king, has arrived home safely. Barzoli, the Gileadite, also came down from Murgulim to cross the Jordan with the king and to send him on his way from there. Now Barzoli was a very old man, 80 years of age. He had provided for the king during his stay in Maha Nam for he was a very wealthy man. The king said to Barzoli, cross over with me and stay with me in Jerusalem, and I will provide for you. But Barzoli answered the king, how many more years shall I live that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king? Am I not, am I now, I am now 80 years old. Can I tell the difference between what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of men and women singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my Lord, the king? Your servant will cross over the Jordan with the king for a short distance, but why should the king reward me in this way? Let your servant return. That I may die in my own tomb, that near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant, Kimham. Let him cross over with my Lord, the king, do for him whatever pleases you. The king said, Kimham, shall cross over with me, and I will do for him whatever pleases you. And anything you desire for me, I will do for you. So all the people crossed the Jordan and the king crossed over. The king kissed bars the lie and gave him his blessing, and bars the lie returned to his home. When the king crossed over to Gilgal, Kimham crossed with him all the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel had taken the king over. Soon all the men of Israel were coming to the king and saying to him, why did our brothers the men of Judah steal the king away and bring him in his household across the Jordan, together with all his men? All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel. We did this because the king is closely related to us. Why are you angry about it? Have we eaten any of the king's provisions? Have we taken anything for ourselves? Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah. We have ten shares in the king, and besides we have a greater claim on David than you have. So why do you treat us with contempt? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king? But the men of Judah responded even more harshly than the men of Israel. Now a troublemaker named Shiva, son of Bikri, a Benjamin, happened to be there. He sounded the trumpet and shouted, we have no share in David, no part in Jesse's son, every man to his tento Israel. So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Shiva's son of Bikri, but the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem. When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace and put them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but did not lie with them. They were kept in confinement until the day of their death, living as widows. Herein's our reading. We have a response of thankfulness that's printed for us in our bulletins and we respond in this way to say to the Lord, we're glad that you've given us this your word. It's good for us. So the word of the Lord. Thanks indeed. Let's pray. I mentioned to you, I think in Sunday school, that I've been in conversation. I mentioned this last week too. I've been in conversation with a lot of people I grew up with. I pulled out, someone popped up for me on Facebook about like two Fridays ago, and I thought, you know, I've got someone from a new and high school. And I knew that when we were first in North Carolina back at the end of 1998, my parents came down and visited us for Christmas, and it was either then in 98 right after we had moved or the next year in 99 when we had that terrible ice storm. Remember that? We got like 19 inches of snow here. Remember that? And my dad drove down. My mom flew, my dad rented a U-Haul, and he grabbed all my stuff from my room that I grew up in. So I had some furniture that was left over that he thought we might be able to use, which we did. But you know, all through high school, I just grabbed anything I was a part of that was printed some program or an article in the paper, something that all the way when I grew up, old scripts from plays I was in, the oldest thing I have that I've found so far is the script for my fourth grade play. But he just, whenever I had anything like that, I just threw it in a drawer. I never organized it. I just threw it in a drawer or a cabinet, somewhere in my room. And I graduated from college, and two weeks later or maybe a week later, I was at my training for my job for campus ministry. And so I only had a week at home after college. And then I got back from my training, and I had two weeks before Betsy and I got married. And we got married two weeks after I got home. And then we got back from our honeymoon, and we ran our new apartment. So I never really moved out of my home. So there's all this stuff and so my dad just gathered it for me. So there were these two big boxes of all this stuff, all these bulletins and papers and newspaper articles and old photos and that kind of thing. So I've been going through that over the past week. And so since that, I have created some new Facebook pages for my friends, including my high school soccer friends. So now we have a page on Facebook for Delaware Hayes Soccer early 80s. And it started off as just a group Facebook message. And then I just created that. We've been putting pictures up and talking to each other and that kind of thing. But one of the things that came up was one of the guys where my teammates said, you know what, we kicked the living daylights out of everybody in middle school. Everybody around. We just, we did. We just won all the time. We were just a little town, but we had a really good, especially the class above me. They were great. Maybe the greatest class that ever went through our high school. But we just beat everybody. And we had a great coach. He was Irish. His name was Brendan Butler. And he had a triumph spitfire. About an 19. I don't know what it was. 75. Those were a little two-seat British sports cars. It rusted through. And so it had a hole where you put your feet in the passenger seat. And so there was a rubber mat over that. But I remember one time when we didn't have enough parent drivers our games were after school. And so it was, you know, hard to find parent drive. We didn't have enough. And so my friend Doug Myers and I had to ride in the spitfire with Brendan. And so, you know, I was on the way there. I was sideways behind the seats. And it was a convertible too. And so I was sideways behind the two seats. And between the convertible nylon and plastic window there. And the back of the seats. And then we traded places on the way back. He was back there. But I remember we stopped at McDonald's. And we were eating some food there. And we didn't know there was a hole where his feet were. You know, because there was a mat there. And so he pulled up the mat. And he saw the hole there. And he was a funny, really funny guy. And he just laughed about it. And at the time, you know, it was the 70s we had that Indian commercial hadn't hit us yet. And so he just took his wrapper from McDonald's. And he threw it down through the hole. You know, and we thought that was hilariously funny. Right? We didn't know not to litter during those days. And that crying guy just hadn't affected us. But one of the things we talked about is how did we come to be lose so many games in high school? We just massively, massively lost in high school. And it wasn't until my junior year that our high school ever had a winning season. And so that was the junior year where that great soccer class were seniors. And one of the things we talked about was that in middle school, and junior high, as we called it back in those days, in junior high, we had this great coach, Brennan Butler. And he taught us how to play together. He taught us how to pass the ball, how to move on the field, and how to be a united team. You know, he said, the first real soccer is possession. Keep possession of the ball. Don't lose the ball. And don't provide people, you know, when someone has the ball, you want to provide for them, two people will pass, too. And so we just annihilated teams up. But in high school, in high school, we didn't. And we realized, as we were talking about this this past week, you know, that we loved playing soccer in junior high. We were winning all the time, but we loved Brennan. He was fun. And he was young. He'd get out there and play. And he was better than all of us. He'd get out there. None of us could take the ball from him. And we'd play these short scrimmages. Practices were just short scrimmages the whole time. No drills. No running. We were just playing soccer. So it's great. But it provided force. It's just this unity in this common bond that's even kept us together today, where this just, you know, thing just exploded with all these people getting together and talking about old times. But when we look at this text here, among the many things, and we're in our third week and last week of this text, I think third week of this text, we see this dynamic in play. That there's a great leader that God has for us. And this great leader, we've known from our past. And this great leader, and recognizing his greatness, is the key to our unity. And what God desires for us is unity. And his means for unity is being under this great leader. You know how when things start going wrong, when the one game I started as a basketball player on the varsity, I started one game on the varsity. Now we were 19 and three, so don't hold it against me. We had a good team, my senior year. But the one game I started, and we lost. It was one of three losses. I remember we started. We had three guys who were out from the starting lineup. That's why I started. Two guys were academically unknowledgeable, and one God broke his wrist and practiced the date the night before. He was going up for a layup, and he just got undercut unintentionally, and came down and broke his wrist. And so our coach decided we were going to start in a half court stall offense, the old Dean Smith four corners offense. Because we didn't know if we had the gun power, the scoring power, to win the game. And so we were going to make it like a 32 to 28 victory if we could. But that didn't work out well. And I remember as it didn't work out well, we kind of started turning against each other. I took a shot and it didn't go in. I was two for four of that game. But I took a shot and it didn't go in, and somebody came over to me and yelled at me right in my face. But you know how when things aren't going well, you start disagreeing. You know yelling, and there's disunity, and all this kind of thing like we saw in Philippians with Yodin, you know, Syracuse, Paul said, tell those women to get along. Right? As I said, as in Philippians four, two. Tell them to get along. And so God is a solution for us. It's not a good place that we want to be in the church. To be disunified. And so one of the things, and even one of the prayer requests this morning, was giving great thanks, that we have a unified church, that we love each other. We're an agony not being able to meet together face to face right now, because this is such a sweet place. But why is that? We have this dynamic that we're going to talk about this morning, in effect, a big, you know, full bore going on there. And so what brings us about, what ruins unity for any group, but particularly in the church, what ruins unity. Nobody wants to be in a church where there are factions, and there's lack of unity. And so God gives us a prescription for this, not cowbell. It's something else. So if you'd like to fill up blanks in an outline, you're welcome to do that. We start here, and if you want to just listen, you can just listen and that's fine too, but if that helps you follow along, great, here we go. Number one, two weeks ago, we talked about that Jesus was not, and is not, nor will he be popular on the earth? I'll repeat that for you so you can get all those. Let's set us up for what we're talking about. Jesus was not when he was here on the earth, and he is not today, nor will he be popular on the earth? So we talk about things like Jesus said, when I come back, it'll be like the days of Noah. People will be in wickedness and mocking the people of God like they mocked Noah for building an ark, for him expecting a judgment to come on the earth. And we as Christians are people who expect a judgment to come. Final judgment when Jesus returns, and we read some things about, you know, after Jesus returns, and Revelation 21 and 22. And so we expect that, and so we know this is the case. Jesus was not popular, he's not popular today, and we're not going to be in a place in our lives before Jesus comes back or before we die, where Jesus becomes popular, and people are looking to us and say, hey, teach me about Jesus. That's where I'm in society. So in contrast, keeping on in your sentence there, we will be scorned just as Jesus was scorned. So Jesus is scorned, and he's mocked, Matthew 27, those who pass by Jesus, not only as Jesus is on a cross in his underwear. That's not enough for people. Jesus is so scorned that when he's publicly executed in the most humiliating, painful way that they could do, it's as those who pass by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads. The response of disgust and rejection. So this is what we're to expect that we're scorned for following Jesus. It's not something that non-believers say, well, that's really great. Maybe some do. You know, they're exceptions. People think, oh, everything's great. I'm just going to encourage everybody all the time. Oh, good for them. That's great. But mostly, you know, Jesus said the world will hate you because it hated me. And you represent what's true and you represent that I am rightfully their Lord and King. And final judgment is coming and if it comes to you based on what you've done, you're in trouble. And we know that as Christians and that's why we're calling to Jesus and said, forgive us and he has. So the question is why follow Jesus, why have him be our king if it means we get scorned in our lives? In other words, it's being loyal to Jesus in this life worth it. Why have him be our king with all this mocking? So here's our answer from God in this passage. Of course, Jesus says being loyal to, or the scripture says being loyal to Jesus is worth it. And we get to number two. And I spoke a few weeks ago about Apple computer. When it opened up and first offered itself as a stock in 1980, I think the equivalent price of a stock was 23 cents per share because it had all these splits. Today, it's at about $290 or something like that is up at about $330 before the coronavirus. But yeah, if you invested and invested $10,000 back then, you know, when it was an initial public offering, it's a call it, you know, would that have been worth it for you? And the answer is yes, that'd be worth at $10,000 would be worth over $7 million today, or about $7 million with the break a month or so ago. But Apple's computer has been out of favor its whole existence after IBM created its PC in about 1983. It's been the death of Apple computer has been declared many, many times. And beyond this, the stock has been out of favor lots of times and it's gone up and down and mentioned a couple of weeks ago and Steve Jobs came back to the company he had founded that he had been away from. In 1997, there were 30 days away from financial bankruptcy. Okay, so the question is, you know, if this is the view of Apple computer and you're going along in your 1986 and 1989 and 1992 and the stock price has gone way down or you're there in 1997 and you get news that there are months from bankruptcy, do you keep the stock? Do you keep the stock? Is it worth it through the ups and downs through the scorning of people and when you have your Mac computer or whatever it is that you've got and people say, oh yeah, that's a toy. You know, is that worth it taking the scorn of people and so Jesus is parallel to this? And so number two is this to fill out your outline here. It's worth it to be loyal to Jesus and God says to us related to this unite, unite. That's your blank. Unite with all God's people under Jesus' kingship. Buy in, be loyal. Buy in all your life, be loyal. All your life. Unite with all God's people under Jesus' kingship because it will be well worth it. Unite with all God's people under Jesus' kingship. Now in your life and for all your life because it will be well worth it. In part because of what we're discovering today and it's because or on in your outline there because Jesus will take care of you. It'll be well worth it because Jesus will take care of you and perfectly when he returns. Jesus will take care of you and perfectly when he returns. Now we're not saying that Jesus won't take care of you now but it's not in perfection, right? I can't, I've been able to run for a month and a half because I have near stress fracture in the bottom of my foot like at the balls of my feet on the left hand side. I didn't do anything extraordinary. I'm just old. So nothing happened to me on any run or weightlifting or anything like that. It's just I started feeling this ache and what it was was inflammation around here and so they did an x-ray, it didn't show a break but it didn't go away after four weeks so they didn't MRI and it shows that it was near as almost on the border of a stress fracture there. And so I get another six weeks off. So you know, Jesus is not taking care of me perfectly in terms of my physical health here. That's not God's design that we don't decay and get older and have things go wrong. But he takes care of our souls perfectly. He takes care of our bodies here and there according to his good will. And some of our suffering in body is for the benefit of our souls. That we would be loyal to him even more. That we would love him even more like my fibreschef. Is I don't care that I'm lame? I don't care if I get any of my land back. I'm just glad your back is my king. That's it. I just want your return to my king. And this is great. And so that's our response. We're like, you know what? I don't care what happens to me in my life. If I get run over by truck on the way home, so what? Who cares? What I care about is that Jesus is coming back. What I care about is being with him. Because then when I'm with him, when I see him face to face, when he comes back from Mahane, I'm so to speak, when the son of David comes back from heaven above, everything's going to be really good as an understatement, right? So we unite with all God's people under Jesus' kingship because it's going to be well worth it because of the utter and perfect care he will have for us and show for us when he returns. So if you're at a low point in your life, either this month or for the last six years, if you're low point in your life and, you know, you're sitting there in 1997 owning Apple stock, the message is this, hold on to that. Hold on to that. It's going to be so worth it. So Jesus' perfect care upon you upon his return is for shown here for us in David's treatment at the time of his return. So get this in the mega narrative of David getting chased out of Jerusalem. Of David getting anointed by, before that, by Samuel as king, back in first Samuel 16, the men and air, this is all parallel to Jesus' life and God designed it, God decreed David's life to have all these things so it would show forth what would happen to Jesus when he came. And so Jesus is anointed king by John the Baptist and God pronounces kingship upon Jesus there. But for David, that was by Samuel the prophet. And God declares, you're my son, David. Just see, the layer would declare the Jesus as his son. And then David comes and he's been coronated as king by John the Baptist, God's own prophets. But then he gets chased out of the land. So we reject Jesus and we say no king but Caesar. Or in David's day, no king but Absalom. Or now, no leader but Shiva. But really, what we're talking about here is no king but Absalom. But then David returns. And this is parallel to the return of Jesus. When Jesus returns, what's it going to be like for those who have decided to be loyal to him? For those who are as Paul the Apostle says, glad for his appearing. Jesus will return and some will fret. And that's an understatement. And some will be glad for his appearing and say, at last, my life in this era is over. And we'll have that Mephiba Sheth response. Yeah, all my life, what matters is my king is returned. That's the big picture of what's going on here in this passage. And so when David comes back, he takes care of those around. How does he treat people when he comes back? How does David treat people when he comes back for shadowing how Jesus would treat people? Look at verse 29 in your Bibles, verse 29. Mephiba Sheth is given half his land back. Now from the chapter before, we realized that Mephiba Sheth had lied about, or sorry, Ziva, Mephiba Sheth's servant had said, Mephiba Sheth was disloyal to you. And so David says, okay, if he's been disloyal to you, Ziva, I'm going to give you all Mephiba Sheth's land. But then Mephiba Sheth comes here in this passage and says, Ziva lied about me. He betrayed. I wanted to come out with you. But Ziva said, no, you should stay here. And then beyond that, Ziva lied and said, I was trying to take over the kingship from you. But David says, hey, and he just believes him. And he should. He's right. David's right to believe Mephiba Sheth. He says, hey, I'm going to divide the land between you and Mephiba Sheth. So David's good to Mephiba Sheth when he returns as Mephiba Sheth is well taken care of. Now look at verse 33, another person, bars lie. David is going to take care of this loyal one, bars lie two, giving him a place to stay in Jerusalem just as he had for Mephiba Sheth before David was cast out of the land. The Fhiba Sheth indicates this in this passage that prior to David's leaving Jerusalem, David had taken Mephiba Sheth who's saws grandson, Jonathan's son. He'd taken Mephiba Sheth into his palace. And Mephiba Sheth was fed by David's cooks and bakers and sat at the table and ate breakfast lunch and dinner with David every day, among the honored people around David. And so Mephiba Sheth had been well cared for prior to the exile of David. But when he comes back, Mephiba Sheth is now taken care of well again. And now David offers this to bars lie. This is you come, bars lie. And be like Mephiba Sheth has been. Join me at my table. I'll take care of you. You'll hear the singing of my servants and the most beautiful voices in all Israel. And you'll hear them, and you'll have the best food in all of Israel. And bars lie says, my taste buds are dead, my ears are dead. I can't see anything. So what's the use? I'm just going to be a burden to you, David. So let me just go home. Then I won't be a burden to you. And then I can be buried next to my father. And so David says, sure. But then that's verse 33 there. Verse 37 and verse 38. And bars lie says, but here, take my servant, Kimham. And treat him as if he were me. David says, sure. I'll do that greatly in your honor. I'll treat Kimham like I would you. And so Kimham comes and David says, in bars lie, not only by what I will to do for him, which I would have done for you, but you name it bars lie. However you want me to, however whatever you want me to do for him, I'll do it. That's there in verse 38. And so again, the question, how well does the returning king, David, treat those who have been loyal to him? It's like, wow. They're honored guests, royal descendants, and all that kind of thing, or not royal descendants, but royal guests and treated well in the land. And even this servant, because he's related to bar's life, who's been faithful to David, is treated well. Then look at verse 39. Bar's lie, even on his parting. Bar's lie crosses over the Jordan River. David had gone east of the Jordan River to hide from Absalom. They fought their armies, Absalom's army, and David's army. They fought against each other, east of the Jordan. Absalom's army is defeated. All of Israel says, well, Absalom said, what should we do? And they've all decided here at the front of our passage that they should be loyal to David, and so they come back to him, and the Judahites come back to him. But as bars lie to parts, David gives, as bars lie, his blessing. Kisses him, gives him his blessing, and so he's well treated. Not, well, you don't want to be with me. David could get mad at this. I read one commentary on this passage, and it was kind of perplexed. What about bar's lies response? Isn't this an insult to David? That he wouldn't go with him? But it's not, and David takes it rightly for what it is. He judges this response rightly, and so he blesses bar's lie. This is how those who are loyal get treated. And bar's lies loyalty, like we talked about last week, he was over 80, so he couldn't help David move back with all his stuff and all his kids and grandkids and all that, you know, whatever was there, all his stuff. He couldn't help him move physically, couldn't carry boxes, couldn't carry the piano across the Jordan River. But he had wealth. And so he analyzes his own giftedness, his own ability, and his ability was unwealthy. And so he had taken care of David and all his people, his whole entourage in Mahaneum, where David was hiding from Absalom. And so David treats this loyal servant bar's lie, who's delighted that David's going back into Israel to reign over the whole Promised Land again. He treats him with his blessing. But then look at this, and this is a curious thing. And we looked into chapter 20, verse 3. We added those three verses this week. David comes back and we see these concubines. Now, should David had had concubines now? Was that sin? Yes. Should David have had just one wife? Yes. Was it sinned that more than one wife? Yes, it was sinned that more than one wife. But yet, if you remember the story of these concubines, David left the concubines behind when he left Jerusalem. Now, left the concubines behind to take care of his palace, which Hiram King of Tyre had built for him. It wasn't a thing of self-glory for David. And so he leads them to take care of it while everyone else leaves. And then Absalom comes in, and when he comes into Jerusalem, he sleeps in public with these concubines, to get at his father, to publicly embarrass his father, to make it known to all Israel that I am a stench to my father, David. So make a decision today. Either join me or run away with my father, but maybe feel like Lyden King, the scar. Run away. Sinba and never come back. And so these are abused women. Not only have they been made concubines instead of the real wife of somebody, but also being a concubine of a king they were provided for in terms of their shelter and house and clothing and that kind of thing. But David comes back and he knows what's going on. He knows they've been publicly and grossly and sexually humiliated before all Israel. And so what's he do? He knows they're used goods as we put it today. He will marry them. And if they're not married, they won't have provision. That's the way things were back then. And so what's he do? He protects them from the shame of public. He keeps them confined. We might say that's like imprisoning them. No, he was protecting them from public shame. And he provides for them for all their lives. Those who didn't just publicly and grossly humiliated David takes care of them. So how does the returning king take care of those who are loyal to him? And these concubines have been loyal to David. They stayed behind in danger that was realized to be at the palace of David and to take care of that form. In the chance that he should come back and he was confident he would come back. We see that confidence in Psalm 236 when he said, I'll return to the house of the Lord all the days of my life or in the future. So David treats them with kindness and dignity. He takes care of them, not discarding them. Not saying you're used goods. What are you good for me now? My son slept with you. But he treats them with care and dignity and tenderness and compassion in their disgraced state. So this great care will happen for us when our king returns to Jerusalem from heaven. When he descends and that's what we read about, Jim read this verse in Revelation chapter 21. Jesus speaks of it in Matthew 2534. He says this of his return. Jesus speaking of his own return. He says this, Matthew 25 verse 34. Then the king will say to those on his right, come. That's us. Come. You who are blessed by my father. Take your inheritance. The kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. So what's Jesus saying about winning returns? There's an inheritance for us. Made for us before the creation of the world. So before Jesus made anything, before he made matter, there was this plan that there would be this inheritance for you who are loyal to Jesus, for you who have faith in Jesus. This inheritance that would fully come to you when Jesus would return and bring with him the new heavens and the new earth. And dwell with men as we read about in Revelation 21 and 22. Dwell with us on the earth in the new redone, perfected Jerusalem. So Revelation 21 verse 4 describes how we'll be doing. A little bit of what this inheritance will look like. Verse 4 of Revelation 21 says, Jesus will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death and mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things that we experience today will have passed away. He who was seated on the throne will say, I am making everything new. And he says to him who is thirsty, I will give the drink water without cost from the spring of the water of life. This message is in the new heavens and the new earth, Jesus will be taking care of you. No longer any death, no decay, no thirst, water of life for us. Like what is it? It's not spring valley water. The kind monk always drinks exclusively. Better than that. And then chapter 22 in Revelation verse 1, the angel showed me the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and from the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of I kill plants when I get them. They just die. But the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit yielding its fruit every month. So every month it's got this yield of fruit on it. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse, the words of David nearly. Just the words of David are to bars the lie and to those who come to him. Words of grace and I'll take care of you. Okay, you want me to take care of Kim Humb. I'll take care of him. And these are a foreshadowing of Jesus' words to us. Here drink from this. It's a water of life in the river of life which flows from my throne out of Jerusalem. So being loyal to Jesus in this life, like it was to bars the lie when he was loyal to David in the midst of Jesus' great unpopularity, that's what was true of bars the lie right. He was there for David when David was down the lowest. When David was rejected deeply, bars the lie was there and it's good for bars the lie when the king returns. So the return of the king is better for us than having an apple stock so to speak. Yes, indeed. So, A, in your outline there, those who are with him, those who are with Jesus through their faith, will be in a state of total provision. That's your point A there. Those who are his, who are with him through their faith, will be in a state of total provision. And total care, a state of total provision and total care when he returns. This would be the case for Northern Israel. Even though they had departed and they had been under Absalom during the rebellion, half of them at the beginning of our passage, verse 9, 10, 11, half of them are like, you know what, that was dumb. David was the one who fought for us and defeated the Philistines. All those years, not Absalom, why did we go with Absalom? Now Absalom's dead. When we literally don't have the king we chose isn't he in a round? And so they say, you know what, we should be loyal to David again. Maybe you'll receive us. And the Jedi too didn't cross over with David. And David was the tribe of Judah. So these were his people, his flesh and blood, his relatives. David sends word to them and say, hey, the Israelites are only related to me. They're beating it to the punch. They're bringing me over across the Jordan. Shouldn't you be doing this and the Jedi say, yes, we should. In fact, they get an argument over who was first and who owns more of David at the end of this chapter. But we want to be people who care for our king even when he's unpopular. Not just scrambling at the end of our lives. And scripture tells us if we scramble when Jesus returns it's too late. From that time where Jesus breaks through, it's just too late. And it tells us that those who do see him when he breaks through, if they're not a faith, they'll curse the day and they'll curse him and they'll hide. They won't come to him in repentance and book of Revelation recounts that for us twice. Their response is not repentance and faith. Their response is to fight against him. So total care when he returns, this is what we get. So be so now, now, unite with the rest of God's people under Jesus as king. Because better things lie ahead for all those who are under his kingship when he returns. At the return of Jesus is abundant provision for all who are his. So we look around and say, hey, I'm for Jesus, you're for Jesus. Let's get together. Let's be with him. Let's go out to Mahanam if we need to, to be with him. Let's be, if we die before he returns, let's be with him. So we're with him when he comes back from Mahanam. We're with him when he crosses the Jordan and comes back to the earth. Can you see that imagery there? So that imagery is dead souls who have died in faith in Jesus. They're those who are with Jesus in heaven right now. And they come with him when he returns. And that's what Scripture defines for us. But those who are alive and have faith in Jesus when Jesus returns like us. If it comes in 30 seconds, we're like those in the promised land. And like the Fivosheth who go out and say, I'm so glad you're back. Okay, right? So that's what's going on here. So we unite for the time being. And we who are still on this earth, so to speak, still living in Judah, but loyal to David, but we didn't go out with him to Mahanam because we haven't died yet. We talk to each other and we say, boy, we want to be great when our king returns. When prosperity comes back to the land, that's one of the reasons Lion King is so great. When Simba comes back, the lack of fruit, the dryness, the inability, you know, every starving and thin. And when the king comes back, the reins come. And it's the land is fruitful again. And all who are Simba's prosper, it's a really great parallel to when the king leaves and then when the king returns once like when the king returns. So watch the Lion King. It has almost my full endorsement. So unite the God's people with God's people under Jesus's king. And then number three, number three, know that the abundant provision is under Jesus. And that's on the horizon and let that motivate you for the rest of your life. Whether Jesus returns tomorrow or this afternoon, or whether he doesn't return until 20,000 years after you've gone to heaven, just be united with his people under him. It's better to be with him. Even if he's, you know, disregarded by everybody else, it's better to be with him. It's better to be with his people. So number three, in the meantime, that's your word, in the meantime, don't merely get yourself, make yourself a lone independent person under Christ's kingship. They don't be off in Babylon or in Egypt saying, yeah, David's my king, but not be with his people. Be with his people. United to be there at the Jordan River. Join together with all his people rejoicing with him and at his return. So in the meantime, don't be just an independent Christian. But know that you're a member of the church. And that in your life in the church, that's your blank there. In your life in the church, as you live in this time of Jesus, not having come down to be on the earthly Jerusalem again. There's another message for you here. Be united, that's your blank. Be united and get along. Be united and get along with your brothers and sisters. So one is because Jesus is so great, Jesus is a king, and Jesus has a kingdom. And so being with Jesus is to be with his people. Be with him, be cheering him, be fighting for him, be singing his praises with his people. That's what's like to be part of the kingdom of God. And that's what Jesus said with the good news, that we could be part of the kingdom of God. He says, with me, the kingdom of God is here. It's near, it's among you because I'm the king. And so you can bow your knee to me and be a part of this kingdom. You can believe in me and be a part of this kingdom. And this is this group that follows Jesus around. This is the group of 500 to whom Jesus appears in his resurrection state before he ascends. And so we want to be united. And in the midst of this people, we also want to get along. And that's something that these folks don't do too well, right? We're like at versus 41 through 43. How is that supposed to strike you? God puts that there and everything's going great, right? It's going great. It's like, wow, David was outside. He was downtrodden. He was throwing rocks and dirt upon his head. There's like a high school soccer friend, Jerry Fectries, say, a rocks and garbage. You know, throwing down upon our head is head. And now everything's good. The battle's been won. Absence defeated. All of his first half of Israel, the northern ten tribes. So let's get with David. And then the other half of Israel shows up at the end of this chapter. And says, we're with you too. And in addition, Aljuda comes to David. And they're all, you know, like, we're with you. And this is all great. And all the people have been loyal to David. They're rejoicing. And this is celebration at the Jordan River. Celebration. They're excited. And they're bringing them over. And they're even helping him move, right? Well, hate moving. Well, help, help, hate helping our friends move. But we do it because they're our friends. And they're helping Jesus get across that, or sorry, David. Get across the Jordan River. And there's a, so it's a great triumph. And then all of a sudden, we see how they, they're bickering. And they're arguing with each other. And this is supposed to hit us like, oh. Again, you know, they didn't learn their lesson. It's easy for us because we're reading it in like five minutes. They're experiencing this over like two months. A lot of things happen if we watch our news. A lot of things happen between one day and the next. So it'd be gracious toward these people who are dead now. But it's supposed to hit us here like, oh. Now they're not getting along. They were united under David. It's their king. And now they're not getting along. And so they're competitive with each other. Well, we, we wanted them to be with us first. And the Judah says back to, you know, which was true. Half the tribe of Israel. Well, we call them back first. That's the beginning of this, this passage. And the Judah said, well, we're in his flesh and blood. We're, he's of the tribe of Judah. We're Judahites. So we have more right to him than you do. And then the Israelites retort back. Well, we've got ten shares in him. You and Benjamin, you only have two. Twelve tribes in Israel. We're ten of them. We have more right to David being our king than you do. And so they fight and it increases in hostility. And you see this, this final thing here. The men of Israel. They, you know, they responded. We have ten shares. And then at the end of that, a very end of the chapter. But the men of Judah responded even more harshly than the men of Israel. So Israel responded harshly. Judah responded back even more harshly. They weren't getting, they weren't getting, getting along. And then there's Shiba. What's Shiba do with this situation? What's he, what's he do? Well, here's a message from this text. A, in your outline there. Do not argue. Do not argue with your fellow church members. Do not argue. Now, you know, if, if they're saying Jesus is not God and that there are other ways to have your sins forgiven, or that God doesn't exist, you know, yeah, speak truth to that. But, but we're, you know, these are people arguing who all have David as their king. And so in the church, we're all people who have the son of David as our king. Jesus as our king. And we're all committed to that. And so committed, they're arguing over who's more committed. Right? And the message here is don't do that because look what happens. All of Israel was once again for one little tiny moment united under David as they should have been because David was God's choice to be king overall of them. And David's descendants king overall them for as long as God's people had a king which would be forever into the future now realized in Jesus. And they're arguing. So the message of this text do not argue with your fellow church members. Paul says in Philippians 2 2, make my joy complete by being like-minded, like-minded. Not arguing, being different in mind about all these things. Having, he says, have the same love for one another. Being one in spirit and purpose. Not two, not five in spirit and purpose. Be one in purpose. Be one in spirit. Have his union together amongst yourselves. And then in Philippians 4 2, he says, I plead with Yodia. I plead with Synecchi to agree with each other in the Lord. Agree with each other. This shouldn't be happening in the church where it's disputed. And I'm not even in Philippi. And it's been reported to me that you two are arguing and it's an issue. This shouldn't be this way. And so in between those two verses 2-2 and 2-4 in chapter 2 verse 14, he says, do everything without arguing. That's some things without arguing. Do everything without arguing or complaining. And then in 2 Timothy, Paul says to Timothy, now Timothy is a pastor. And this is Paul telling Timothy how he should act in the church as a pastor. He tells Timothy, don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments. Timothy is a pastor. Don't participate in arguments. And don't have to be a part of the church because no they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel. Instead, he must be kind everybody. So Paul says, here's the deal. Coraline, kindness, division, unity, unity and kindness. That's where we are. That's what the church is to be. That's what Christ wants for every local church. That's what Christ wants for all of his churches. Unity and kindness and graciousness us to one another. And so be because arguing gives opportunity to division of the church. So we don't want to argue because arguing gives opportunity to division in the church. And we see this in 20 verses 1 and 2. Sheva sees her division. And what's that mean for him? Opportunity to be a pseudo king. He says they're arguing. I can divide and conquer. We know that expression. And that's what he does. He divides and conquers. And he says, not we have two shares in David. Not we have 10 shares in David. What's he say? We have no sharing David. Let's get out of here. And they do. So people of God, the church has got serious when he says, don't argue. God serious. And see, don't even have the seeds of division, which is arguing in the church. Don't argue about little stuff. Don't argue about what color the carpet is. Don't argue about this or that or all this little stuff. Argue about whether Jesus is God. Okay. That's worthy of argument. Argue about, you know, that we should all be following Jesus as King. And I don't care who was first. You got to say before I did fantastic. Your life has been better than mine for all those years. And I'm glad for you. I'm going to rejoice with those who rejoice. Right? We don't care. You know, like those workers out in the yard that, you know, that start working for the master at the beginning of the day. And then they're complaining that people come and work only an hour and get the same pay. We don't care. We work all day long. We count it a privilege. And you don't have to pay me Jesus. This is so good. Right? And so we don't argue about stuff. We love. We love each other. We don't argue because here's where it ends with division in the church, which brings shame to Jesus. With division in the church, which makes people distraught with division in the church, which makes people disillusioned. And they leave the church for two or three years. And that's what happens. It's really sociologically what happens. Church divisions. People don't come back into the church for two or three years. They're so distraught over what's happened. Unless they're really faithful and really mature. And then they stick with it. But they're in mourning over what's happened. God says, don't do this. He says, it's through Paul. Do everything without arguing. He says, Yody and Sankie, get along. This is the church. It's not bicker club. Right? We're not, we're not. Get along. This is dangerous to be arguing in the church. I'm preaching the choir here. This is a message. Do what you're doing. Keep loving each other. Keep not arguing. We're not arguing. We're not bickering. We're not divided. We're all just one group. It's just very pleasant. It's been that way for six years or whatever. Okay. So in the church, God wants unity. He wants unity. That's your see. Under Jesus is not division. 1 Corinthians 11 through 13. Jim read it for us. The church and Corinth they were divided. Some were saying, I'm of a Paul. I'm a Paul. I'm a Peter or a seethist. And some were saying, Well, I'm of Jesus. And we're like, great. No fair. You win. Right? And Paul says, is Christ divided? That's his question. It's sarcastic. And it's, it's rhetorical. Is Christ divided? Really? Guys? Is the body of Christ divided? Is this arm separate from his leg? Are we not all working together? Is this is what, this is what you think the church is supposed to be? You are arguing over who's following the better person? And Paul says, I'm glad I didn't baptize anyone, except for this one guy, because they need to be arguing about who's following me. And so we don't want to do this. We don't want to be divided. Chapter 19, verse 14. We want it to be this. In our passage here, verse 14. The men of Judah were like one man. Ephesians 2, verses 11, following. Jesus came that he might unite Jews and Gentiles into one man. Same language. One man. We're supposed to be like this united and having the same mind, Paul says. The same mind united in spirit. Okay? So, D, your assignment as a Christian and as a member of our church, or a member of whichever church you're part of your listening on Facebook, your assignment as a Christian and church member, aim for unity in the church, aim for unity in the church by refraining from arguing. Have you refraining from arguing be of service and loyalty to Jesus and Jesus, I don't want to do anything that would lead to your church dividing. And to this point, D, what's another way we do that is rejecting, rejecting, rejecting, dividers. It also means that we not only do we not argue and provide opportunity for dividers to come like Shiva and use our arguing to divide us, one from another, the card which calls a church split, or a denomination split, or whatever it is, but we reject dividers. And so, chapter 20, verses 1 and 2, northern Israel should not have gone with Shiva and divided God's people. This is a tragedy and we're to see it as that. Paul shows us this in 1 Corinthians 11, 18. Jim read this for us. Paul writes, in the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. And to some extent, I believe it, and there should be no division in the body. 1 Corinthians 12, 25. There should be no division in the body. Jude says in Jude 19, this, of dividers. He says, there are men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts, and do not have the spirit. That's Jude 19. So, what's Jude tell us? If someone is trying to convince you to divide your church or your denomination, like Shiva, recognize this, and the Bible says that those who do try to divide the church, those who work for church division like Shiva, number one, they're in your outline. Do not have the spirit. Dividers do not have the spirit. Let me read Jude 19 again to you. These are men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts, and do not have the spirit. You know what? All Christians have the spirit. This is Jude by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saying men and women who work for the division of a local church or a denomination, gathering a following for themselves like Shiva, they're not Christians. And Jude is making it as plain as he can, saying they do not have the spirit. So, what should be our response? Number two in your outline. Have nothing to do with them. Have nothing to do with them. Titus 310, warn a divisive person once, then warn them a second time after that. Have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is worked and sinful. His self condemned. Roman 1617 says this. I urge you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you've learned. Keep away from dividers. Keep away from them, Paul says. Roman 1617. So, we're to watch out for dividers. We're to warn them. Or we're to warn them. Don't divide the church. If they, and that's mainly a job for the session, but we can do it, you can do it too. Hey, what you're doing is dividing the church. You should not be doing this. And just let the chips fall or they will. They may repent. Or they may get angry with you. And take all their friends and, you know, ostracize you. But be faithful. And so, we watch out for dividers who warn them. And if they persist, the instructional scriptures keep away from them. Have nothing to do with them. Because otherwise, we've got to achieve a situation. And all Israel gathered under David just as it should be. Starting to experience the blessings of the returning king. Now they don't. And Israel's divided again. And they go into not the blessing of being under David, but the curses of not being under David. So divide, so be wary of such a person. Be wary of Shiba's reject them. They ruin everything just as Shiba began to do that in this passage. And we'll read more about it next week. We've moved here from a united Israel where everything's happy and rejoicing and celebrating even Shiba. Who should have most feared David's return? Even he's rejoicing at David's return. And now we've got this big mess because of division. So reject in the church, Shiba and all who come in his likeness today in the church. Don't argue in the church and give Shiba's an opportunity. So summary, summary. What we learned in this passage is this. Jesus is a good king who will provide. Who will provide for you fully when he returns. So unite in the church under him. So back to my friends and our common bond, even though we're on losing teams together, we're able to unite. You know, we grew up together. We played in medals goal and we beat the crowd out of everybody. And we were really great when we worked together like when we were under branding. And we're to be like that with Jesus. United under our great king, Jesus. That's the source. It's over. We're all looking together. We're all growing to be more like him. We're all growing in our Christ likeness. And as we grow in our Christ likeness, we grow to be more and more like each other. And we get along better because Christ likeness involves increased patience, kindness, compassion, toward each other. And then we get along even better. So we unite in the church under him. And then second sentence there for you. To do this, you must refrain from arguing. To do this, you must refrain from arguing in the church. And must reject all those who propose division. This is a bonus. If something's going wrong in the church or there's some directional matter, priority, stay together. And deal with each other with love and patience and compassion because we're all under our great son of David, Jesus, the king. And he wants us to be united. Like Paul said, there should be no divisions in the church. So we're committed to one another in following Jesus our king and we figure it out. And sometimes we don't get our attention. And sometimes we don't get our way. But as a church, a pastor who planted the church of the good shepherd up in Durham, a good friend of mine is not at Memphis said, he said, hey, let's just put, we're talking about a matter once in our meeting of Presbyteria, which is where our elders all meet. And he stood up and said, hey, we're all big boys here. Let's just vote. Someone get our way. Someone won't get our way. But we're together. And that's what it was. And what a great word. And we don't always get our way in the church. But we're committed to being together under our one great head and king, Jesus. This brings him honor, glory, and it gives us peace. So we can walk into this building or you who are watching on Facebook and watching to your local church. And it's a haven of peace for you. That's what God wants for you. Let's pray.